starwarsmushfandomcom-20200214-history
RPLog: Duel Before The Storm
(Timeline: 2 days before the raid on the Bilbringi Shipyards) At one of the numerous hyperspace pathways from Nak Shimmor to The Wheel, a flight of A-Wings awaits, after their number, along with a light freighter, has tugged an asteroid into the pathway to Bilbringi, the next likely stop that the Tormentor is likely to take after their last encounter with Danik Kreldin's ISD, and the Sith... At least, that is what New Republic Intelligence was thinking. "Or were they thinking?" mutters Talia from inside her cockpit, looking to the light freighter currently orbitting that asteroid. "It looks like they arenae coming this way. Drag that rock out of the way before someone who might be legit comes through..." orders she to the pilot of the Rust Bucket... The TIEs do eventually come, a small patrol of 4, one of which is piloted by Liza, the woman having talked her way into being allowed to fly even though she has been moved to a diplomatic position. 'Got to keep my hand trained as well as my eye,' was what she said to the one in charge of assigning missions to pilots. He reluctantly agreed and stated that he was washing his hands of the entire thing, feigning innocence in the matter. That as more than fine with her as it has her where she is now, in the cockpit of an Avenger, leading the others on an advanced patrol. "I am going to keep my sensors passive for now," she notifies the others, "I want you all to do the same. Alternate between broad sweeps and narrow, please. Let's see if we can surprise whomever might be out here..." The rock is still out of their range although it most likely won't be for much longer. As the rock is pulled out of the way, Talia, Condor 3, sighs. "I bloody well hate it when NRI bolluxes things up and comes up with missions like this for us... Something tells me they wouldnae have noticed that asteroid in their hyperspatial path anyway." Sighing, she looks over to the other A-Wings, at least until the advanced sensors in her A-Wing start beeping... "Bloody karking hell." she whispers, before issuing orders: "Rust Bucket, get behind that asteroid; Vulture Flight, prepare t' take yuir sensors off of Passive mode presently." Shaking her head, the obsidian one looks over what her passive sensors are telling her. The large obstacle is finally detected, causing one pilot to groan out loud while an other takes to cursing in Coruscantii, both things that get Liza to roll her eyes in annoyance. "Come on, guys, it's just a rock. If they need to, they can blow it up with some of their laser batteries when they get close enough. Huffing out a sigh, she looks out past her canopy at the asteriod that blocks their planned path, something about it being there striking her as a bit odd. "Let's circle around that bad boy. 3 and 4, you two go over and 2 and myself will go under and we'll meet in the middle. Be sure to sing out if you guys come across anything. Like ships." The lead TIE's throttle is pushed forward and she goes to duck under the hefty rock, letting 2 slip behind in wingman position while 3 and 4 go to carry out their half of the plans. "Affirmative; turning active sensors on now, Obsidian... Kark me!!!" says Condor 2, the wingman for Condor 1, who isn't present. "Brights; four in number, two wing pairs..." That gets Talia's attention even as her actives go live a split second after her other two flight members present. Condor 7, borrowed from Carrion Flight, begins swearing in fluent Dac shortly thereafter, and says, "Orders, Condor 3?" "Prepare to engage, in wing pairs." She picks out the leader of the one flight as her target, taking the lead herself. One of the NR ships comes into view almost immediately once Liza reaches the lower hemisphere of the large rock, that being the ship Talia's piloting, albeit unknown to the Imperial flygirl. "I got a target," she says hurriedly over the comms. "I am going to try and engage and hopefully be rid of one pesky rebel." She makes sure her weapons are on lasers and nothing more deadly before taking a shot but it misses, the other vessel a bit too much out range. Even as her laser fire misses the other TIE pilots begin to announce that they too have enemy ships in view but, unlike Liza, they will wait before firing. Not knowing who her opposite number this pass around is, Talia takes the 'safe' approach, spiraling around the (suprisingly accurate) laser fire of the TIE Avenger. Shaking her head inside the cockpit a little, she notes to her squad mates, "This one's got some bite. Rust Bucket, get yourself clear away from that asteroid; prepare to jump to hyperspace if this gets rougher." She looks to her instrumentation quickly, noting there's no way in hell she'll get a shot off from her spiral... She punches the accelerator, hoping to close with the Imperial fighter quickly enough to get her other playtoys going... This is getting old, fast, and Liza's getting frustrated. She has the position and she fires her lasers, once again trying to hit the enemy hard. Elsewhere, the others are doing the same as their Leader, taking shots of opportunity as they present themselves, they too using lasers, while trying to be careful of the large obstacle that could very easily be the end of them if they were to try and bump it. As she slides back out of the target of Liza's lasers, Talia shakes her head, the other pilot somehow managing to stay on her six. The obsidian one takes a peek, making sure her jammers are still very much on, while she keeps dodging into and out of Liza's targeting lock... Meanwhile, the Rust Bucket, the light freighter that hauled the asteroid into the path of where the Tormentor would normally have gone first, is getting further and further away, and Talia curses under her breath, her A-Wings basically acting as bait for another NRI clusterfrag. Another snaproll keeps Talia out of the line of firing for the moment, but it's becoming blatantly apparent that her opponent is, thanks to a combination of superior fighter and superior skill, being able to stay tight on her six. A slight dive towards the asteroid does nothing for her, and Talia needs to sideslip in order to avoid yet another shot... "Rust Bucket, get the kark out of here!" "Someday something is going to go right in my life," Liza grunts out in Corellian while she lines herself up, yet again, "And when it does I'll have something spectacular happen to me like have a Star Destroyer fall out of space and onto me." The targeting computer, still on the frits thanks to the jamming device targeted on her, beeps weakly, but she still takes another shot. Another rapid diving roll, this time into what would appear to be an attempt to get Liza into the Flying Scissors, and Liza manages to follow Talia, roll for roll, slide for slide; she just isn't capable of putting Talia in the crosshairs long enough to get a good lock. Talia doesn't curse her luck; instead, she tries to keep her concentration on the fight at hand, much like her squadron mates are doing. The slight bit of a maneuvering advantage has allowed the Brights to keep on three of the four A-Wings' tails; the last is able to just keep out of the remaining A-Wing's sights. Sighing and shaking her head, she finds herself outraged now, more at herself than at the pilot she's sticking behind, the inability to do more than that annoying as hell. "Stay on your targets," she calls out to her pilots while angling her TIE's nose up slightly, thinking that perhaps shooting from a different angle might help. As the TIE Avenger keeps flying fast and furious against her, Talia's eyes narrow down to slits as she pulls a high-G turn. "Poodoo. Now I recognize ye... Liza Molokai!" Indeed, her opponent is flying in the patterns Lance told her about, and told her to avoid lest her life be ended rapidly... However, it's at that point that Talia's ward, the light freighter tasked to this mission by NRI, makes its jump to hyperspace, and Talia notes to her squad, "All right, the freighter's out of here. Stop acting like bait; take them OUT!" She then tries to put action to her words... As Talia notes Liza's aggressive flight technique, something so simple, so pure pops into her mind, that she can not believe she hadn't thought of it before. When she crests the asteroid, she dives, then cuts her speed, hoping to cause the Avenger pilot to fly out in front of her... She's a little suprised when it works, but she manages to whisper, "Ooops. Ye blew it." just before she depresses her own triggers, hoping to grab her fifth kill... With the tedium starting to set in, Liza finds herself growing sloppy. Well beyond what she was even as a rookie fresh out of the Academy. A shot is aimed for the opposition's aft and then she snaps her fighter into a roll which unfortunately puts her in the range of Talia's weapons. Thankfully her reflexes are still intact as she is able to gauge when the laser fire's just about to hit and she dives, putting herself into a barrel roll before she begins to jockey for position behind the NR ship. Unfortunately for Liza, Talia's got the figurative taste of blood in her mouth, and she manages to follow Liza's barrel roll just as aggressively as Liza's been following her. If it weren't for the rest of the flight, Talia would jump out at a moment's notice right now, but the rest of the flight is still in the battle. That is when, though, two of the other members of her flight manage to break, and make a jump to hyperspace after messaging Talia that their opponents are good enough to keep them at bay. "Kark me." says she as the third breaks, leaving her little time to make her choice... She breaks hard starboard, in the opposite direction of Liza's last roll. "Next time, Liza..." says she, comms off as she kicks in at full speed, breaking for hyperspace herself. Sweat pouring down her face, Liza watches as the A-wings leap out of system, leaving the TIEs unscathed, miracles upon miracles. "What were they doing...?" She has plenty of time to speculate as they return back to the Tormentor, her mental assessment leaving her with a bitter taste in her mouth. "Command, this is Demon lead. We're returning back to the ship and will report our findings immediately." And that's exactly what they do. Category:Logs